May asks Johnson, if he 'didn't understand COVID-19 rules'

Theresa May and Boris Johnson - Herald Scotland

Former British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday took a swipe at her successor UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as she asked if he had ‘understood’ coronavirus rules while he was throwing Downing Street parties, in breach of the law during the stringent COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

Speaking in context to the damning report from the senior civil servant Sue Gray’s investigation on Johnson’s 'partygate' scandals, that found “a serious failure” in the standards expected in government, May reminded Johnson: “The COVID-19 regulations imposed significant restrictions on the freedoms of members of the public.” She then lambasted the British Prime Minister’s so-called ‘culture of drinking’ in the government social gatherings that the latter had attempted to dismiss off as ‘work meetings.’ 

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Jan 31, May said that the British people “had a right to expect their prime minister to have read the rules, understand the meaning of the rules and to set an example by following those rules,” according to broadcasts circulating from the UK's House of Commons. “What the Gray report does show is that Number 10 Downing Street was not observing the regulations they had imposed on members of the public, so either my right honourable friend had not read the rules or didn’t understand what they meant and others around him, or they didn’t think the rules applied to Number 10. Which was it?” said the former British leader who stepped down as the Conservative party leader in 2019 over Brexit policy failure. 

In response to May’s blatant attack on his alleged conduct, Johnson replied: “No, Mr. Speaker, that is not what the Gray report says, I suggest that she waits to see the conclusion of the inquiry.” Johnson was widely grilled by the MPs on Monday after the publication of a version of Sue Gray's report that found "failures of leadership and judgment" and excessive booze culture between May 2020 and April 2021 at the Downing Street amid the COVID-19 restrictions. 

Johnson then banged the table as he yelled at the former UK leader: “I nearly died of this” as he stressed that he took the pandemic seriously. Gray, meanwhile, handed Met police over 12 such events to investigate, two of which the Prime Minister attended, and one was at his own flat. The back and forth between May and Johnson came after he was handed an "update" into the party gate inquiry. The British PM on Monday, though, insisted that he did not believe he breached rules at the time, also refusing to step down from his position. 

In response to Theresa May, Johnson banged the table as he yelled: “I nearly died of this” stressing that he took the pandemic very seriously. – 

Written by:Zaini Majeed. republic.com